Job-decision inconsistencies involving social comparison information: the role of dominating alternatives

Previous research on joint versus separate preference reversals has demonstrated that individuals focus on social comparison information when they are evaluating a single option but focus on absolute salary when they are considering more than 1 option. Study 1 demonstrates that social comparison information is important in multiple option scenarios when an option favorable on social comparison dominates an inferior, 3rd alternative. Study 2 examines why dominating alternatives are so attractive by investigating the role that the value-shift, weight-change, and emergent-value models play in explaining the pattern of results obtained in Study 1. Results provide support for the value-shift and emergent-value models and further suggest that these 2 models may be interrelated, with justification (emergent-value model) mediating the relationship between the attractiveness of the attributes (value-shift model) and the attractiveness of the dominating alternative.     

The relation of children's everyday nonsocial peer play behavior to their emotionality, regulation, and social functioning

The relations of children's nonsocial behavior to their emotionality, regulation, and social functioning were examined in a short-term longitudinal study. Parents (primarily mothers) and teachers rated children's effortful regulation, emotionality, asocial behaviors, problem behaviors, and social acceptance, and children's nonsocial play behaviors were observed for two semesters. Peers also rated likability. Children's observed reticent activities were related to adults' ratings of high regulation, low externalizing problems, and high asocial behavior, as well as to low anger and low positive emotion. On the other hand, solitary play was associated with low positive emotion and low regulation over time and with high asocial behavior and high peer exclusion. Peer rejection mediated the relation of internalizing emotions (anxiety, low positive emotion) and regulation to solitary play later in the school year, and asocial play mediated the relation of internalizing emotions to both solitary and reticent play behavior.     

Food intake with an antiobesity drug (sibutramine) versus placebo and rorschach data: a crossover within-subjects study

We related the effect of the satiety enhancing drug sibutramine (Meridia, Reductil) on food intake to Rorschach Comprehensive System (Exner, 1991, 1993) personality factors. A placebo-controlled crossover, within-subjects design (n = 36) was used. Food intake after 2 weeks in the sibutramine and placebo conditions was assessed with a test meal using the VIKTOR (Cabmek, Stockholm, Sweden) setup, a computerized eating monitor. Building on baseline VIKTOR measurements, we had earlier studied the microstructure of eating (Elfhag, Barkeling, Carlsson, & Rossner, 2003). In this study, a model including Afr, MOR, and Populars could explain the variance in the effect of sibutramine. Sibutramine may reduce food intake in single test meals for participants whose appetite is prompted by external stimuli including food cues, suggested by the Affective ratio. Distress related to the body in obesity seen in damaged self-imagery (MOR) and adjustment to social expectations (Populars) could also have a moderating effect on the participants' consumption of test meals in an experimental design. Bodily concern (An + Xy) was also related to sibutramine response in univariate analyses.     

Scent and mood state following an anxiety-provoking task

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of water, lavender, or rosemary scent on physiology and mood state following an anxiety-provoking task. The nonsmoking participants, ages 18-30 years, included 42 women and 31 men who reported demographic information and measures of external temperature and heart rate were taken prior to introduction of an anxiety-eliciting task and exposure to lavender, rosemary, or water scents. Following the task, participants completed the Profile of Mood States to assess mood, and temperature and heart rate were reassessed. Participants rated the pleasantness of the scent received. When pleasantness ratings of scent were covaried, physiological changes in temperature and heart rate did not differ based on scent exposure, but mood ratings differed by scent condition. Participants in the rosemary condition scored higher on measures of tension-anxiety and confusion-bewilderment relative to the lavender and control conditions. The lavender and control conditions showed higher mean vigor-activity ratings relative to the rosemary group, while both rosemary and lavender scents were associated with lower mean ratings on the fatigue-inertia subscale, relative to the control group. These results suggest that, when individual perception of scent pleasantness is controlled, scent has the potential to moderate different aspects of mood following an anxiety-provoking task.     

Are There Cross-Cultural Legal Principles? Modal Reasoning Uncovers Procedural Constraints on Law

Despite pervasive variation in the content of laws, legal theorists and anthropologists have argued that laws share certain abstract features and even speculated that law may be a human universal. In the present report, we evaluate this thesis through an experiment administered in 11 different countries. Are there cross-cultural principles of law? In a between-subjects design, participants (N = 3,054) were asked whether there could be laws that violate certain procedural principles (e.g., laws applied retrospectively or unintelligible laws), and also whether there are any such laws. Confirming our preregistered prediction, people reported that such laws cannot exist, but also (paradoxically) that there are such laws. These results document cross-culturally and –linguistically robust beliefs about the concept of law which defy people's grasp of how legal systems function in practice.     

Newly diagnosed lung cancer patients’ preferences for and beliefs about physical activity prior to chemotherapy

Physical activity has been found to have a number of benefits for lung cancer patients yet very little information is available concerning physical activity beliefs and preferences for this population. The purpose of the study was to explore physical activity programming and counseling preferences and beliefs about physical activity in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients scheduled to receive chemotherapy. A total of 43 new diagnosed lung cancer patients completed a researcher-administered survey prior to commencing chemotherapy. Results indicated that only 7 participants (17%) reported meeting public health recommendations for physical activity yet the majority of participants (n = 28) indicated interest or possible interest in physical activity counseling. Many participants also indicated interest or possible interest in an exercise program (n = 29) for lung cancer survivors, preferring it to start during chemotherapy (n = 20), for it to be home based (n = 21), and moderate in intensity (n = 22). The most common behavioral belief (advantage) of physical activity was to build/maintain strength (n = 26) and the most common control belief (barrier) was fatigue (n = 11). These data suggest that physical activity counseling and programming may be well received by newly diagnosed lung cancer patients. Information about physical activity and programming preferences and beliefs from this study may be useful for the design of optimal physical activity interventions for lung cancer patients.     

Procedural Justice and Affirmative Action

There is widespread agreement among both supporters and opponents that affirmative action either must not violate any principle of equal opportunity or procedural justice, or if it does, it may do so only given current extenuating circumstances. Many believe that affirmative action is morally problematic, only justified to the extent that it brings us closer to the time when we will no longer need it. In other words, those that support affirmative action believe it is acceptable in nonideal theory, but not ideal theory. This paper argues that affirmative action is entirely compatible with equal opportunity and procedural justice and would be even in an ideal world. I defend a new analysis of Rawlsian procedural justice according to which it is permissible to interfere in the outcomes of procedures, and thus I show that affirmative action is not morally problematic in the way that many have supposed.     

Reducing women’s lack of fit with leadership positions? Effects of the wording of job advertisements

Linguistic forms which refer to individuals impact mental representations of these individuals: When masculine generics are used, women tend to be cognitively underrepresented, whereas feminine–masculine word pairs are associated with a higher cognitive inclusion of women. The present research investigates whether linguistic forms affect women’s perceived lack of fit with leadership positions, which is particularly pronounced for high-status leadership positions. In a hiring-simulation experiment (N = 363), we tested the effects of different linguistic forms used in German-language job advertisements: (1) masculine forms (e.g., Geschäftsführer, ‘CEO, masc.’); (2) masculine forms with (m/f) (e.g., Geschäftsführer (m/w), ‘CEO, masc. (m/f)’); and (3) word pairs (e.g., Geschäftsführerin/Geschäftsführer, ‘CEO, fem./CEO, masc.’). The job ads announced either a high- or low-status leadership position. Results showed that female applicants were perceived to fit less well with the high-status position than male applicants when either the masculine or the masculine form with (m/f) was used––even though they were perceived to be equally competent. However, female and male applicants were perceived as fitting the high-status leadership position similarly well when word pairs were used.     

Sketches of Sikhs in the 1880s

Between 1883 and 1885 the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway commissioned a sailing expedition around the world with the frigate Vanadis. On board was the Swedish archaeologist and ethnographer Hjalmar Stolpe who during land excursions collected no less than 7500 cultural specimens for an intended ethnographical museum in Sweden. When reaching India in late 1884 he travelled through the northern British territories, including Punjab, for almost three months. This article gives an overview of the Indian and Sikh ethnographical objects preserved in the Vanadis collection and how the material entered the collection through Stolpe's travels, scholarly networks, and encounters with Sikhs in Punjab.     

Charisma Is Contagious: The Effect of Leaders’ Charisma on Observers’ Affect1

Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that charismatic leadership, characterized by nonverbal expressiveness and immediacy, would lead via emotional contagion to the imitation of the leader's nonverbal behavior. In Study I, charismatic leaders were college students whose performance of a simulated campaign speech included more smiles, more intense smiles, and longer and more frequent visual attention to the audience. Observers showed higher levels of all 4 relevant behaviors while watching charismatic leaders. In Study 2, college student participants watched more and less charismatic excerpts selected from President Clinton's and ex‐President Bush's responses during their first 1992 televised debate. Comparing the same behaviors, there was a similar pattern to Study I for responses to the Clinton excerpts, and an almost reversed pattern for the Bush excerpts. The overall results support an emotional contagion effect of charismatic leadership when the leader exhibits truly charismatic behavior.